


An Open Window

by crowlet



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-25
Updated: 2015-04-29
Packaged: 2018-03-25 17:13:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3818398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowlet/pseuds/crowlet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a friendship fic beginning with Akaashi's unexpected encounter with our energetic owl, Bokuto c:</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Akaashi didn’t mind the cold. Truth be told, he preferred winter weather over summer heat any day, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t shiver when temperatures cooled down in the evening. Sitting cross-legged in his living room, metaphorically trudging through worksheets and practice problems in preparation for a quickly approaching midterm, Akaashi let out a soft sigh and laid his head down sideways atop the low table for a short break. He tugged the blankets on his shoulders a little closer together as a cool breeze drifted in from the open window across from him and he widened his eyes in surprise.

Through that very window crawled a strange, disheveled boy.

Akaashi cautiously stood up and let his blanket fall from his shoulders so it wouldn’t hinder any movement,  quickly taking note of his surroundings, objects he could use to defend himself if need be. Akaashi’s living room was particularly neat and tidy this evening though, with nothing but scattered school work and mundane trinkets.

Whatever. Given his usually quiet neighborhood, odds were the kid would be an annoyance rather than anything dangerous.

After a soft thud, the stranger landed himself into Akaashi’s living room and quickly looked around. Eyes alert, bright when they spotted Akaashi a few feet away.

The stranger opened his mouth wide to say something, but quickly closed it, eyebrows furrowing in thought; then, appearing to have resolved some inner conflict, the stranger opted to put a finger over his grinning mouth in a very obvious “shhhhhh”-ing gesture. Akaashi raised his eyebrow at the intruder, arms crossed silently demanding an explanation. An unknown boy crouched beneath his window with leaves sticking to his clothes and messily spiked hair…? At the very least this distraction was a break from studying.

“I’m playing hide-and-seek!” the stranger whispers excitedly, shortly pausing to listen for any approaching footsteps. “No one’ll never find me here!”

“Considering this is a stranger’s house, you aren’t supposed to be here,” Akaashi commented dryly.

The stranger seemed slightly dejected as if realizing the consequences of his spur of the moment actions, “Aeeeehhhhhh, that’s true…you don’t mind, do you?” he asks hopefully, “Kuroo and I made a bet.” As if that explained everything.

Akaashi stared critically at the stranger for a minute, wondering if he realized how silly his explanation was. Reasoning that there was no harm in letting him stay, decided to acquiesce. “Fine.” The sooner he could move on from the situation the sooner he could finish up studying. “You can sit on the couch by the little table instead of crouching by the window. The door is down the hallway to your left when your game is over.”

"Ah! Thank you!” the stranger responded cheerfully, “The name’s Bokuto Koutarou, by the way, nice to meet you!”

The chilly room felt just a tad warmer.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Enter our good friend, Kuroo!

The morning sun filled the house as Bokuto munched on a slice of toast, a few minutes before leaving for school. His phone vibrated and rang with several hoots, a given once he figured out how to mess with his notification and ringtone settings. Swiping past the lock screen, he quickly scaned through the newest posts to a group chat composed of a few of his friends. He read a comment noting Kenma’s tendency to keep to himself and draw as little attention as possible and quickly typed out a reply.

_Bokuto: hAH! If anythng kuroo’s the exact opposite he couldn’t hide in a crowd if he tried! (´･ω･`)_

_Kuroo: bokuto, is that a challenge i hear…?  
you’re so loud and energetic you’d surely stand out even more than me_

_Bokuto could easily imagine the smug expression on Kuroo’s face and wished they went to the same schools so they could properly duke it out. He then chuckled a bit at Kenma’s reply and furiously tapped away at the screen to get in his own say._

_Kenma: You two both definitely stand out more than the average person…_

_Bokuto: eEEEHH? I bet I can go unnoticed much longer than kuroo can! kuroo’s not sneaky at all!!_

_Kuroo: says the person who calls attention to himself no matter where he goes  
who decided bokuto was an owl anyway? this loudmouth is more suited to being a noisy parrot than a silent hunter_

_Bokuto: those are some fIGHTing words bro ヽ(｀Д´#)ﾉ  
u wanna GO_

_Kuroo: u can bet on it (=ↀωↀ=)_

_Bokuto: bro where tf did u get that fACE_

_Kuroo: I was born with it, obviously_

“Ah!” Bokuto was forced to divert some of this attention from the conversation so he could grab his school bag and make a quick dash for the train, his movements broad and energetic. Once safely on the train headed towards Fukurodani, Bokuto typed out reply to Kuroo and established that they would both go through their school day with the goal of being so unnoticed it was like they weren’t even there.

Kenma still maintained that Bokuto and Kuroo were anything but low key.

The proceeding events were entertaining to say the least. Kuroo attempted to smooth down his darn bedhead in a ploy to look “normal,” but his fussing made him stand out all the more with than since his classmates had gotten accustomed to his usual hairstyle. Snapchats of Kuroo attempting to flatten his rebellious hair soon made their way to Bokuto’s phone. Bokuto tried to sneak into his classroom and crept slowly behind corners and the doorway, only to be poked by a classmate in friendly greeting, amused at his antics. Upon walking into homeroom Bokuto was met with loud greetings which he gladly reciprocated out of habit before realizing he was doing the exact opposite of going unnoticed.

By lunchtime, Kuroo had given up on his appearances tried being his usual self- tried being the key word. Because Kenma didn’t like eating lunch in the noisy classroom, he and Kuroo usually ate somewhere outside, today they happened to settle eating on some benches near the classrooms. All was well until Kuroo, forgetting that the benches didn’t have backrests, attempted to lean back and relax, only to lose his balance and fall backwards onto the grass below. Kenma was unamused and Kuroo could only give a weak smile in in resignation. At Fukurodani, Bokuto hoped that if he instead stayed quiet, no one would pay attention to him and he could successfully go without being noticed. That idea backfired, however, when various classmates called out “Bokuto!” or “Hey, Bokuto-kun!” to the tight-lipped loudmouth, sitting in his seat rather anxiously. Seeing him so uncharacteristically quiet, Bokuto’s classmates couldn’t help but crowd around him and tease him into laughing by the end of lunch.

-

Meeting up afterschool, after club activities were over, Bokuto greeted Kuroo with a loud whoop, “Hey, hey, hey! So how’d it go?”

“Hah! I probably played it better than you, at the very least,” Kuroo smirked, although his bluff had no effect judging by Bokuto’s own grin. “I- heeeeeey where’d you get those pictures from?!” he huffed, eyeing the images as Bokuto smugly held up his phone.

Bokuto let out a loud laugh. “But yeah I didn’t do much better,” he admits. Despite that, he looked at Kuroo with renewed energy, “you know what we should do instead?”

“Hmm?”

“Hide-and-go-seek!” Bokuto shouted, “and the person who hides longest without being found is the winner!”

Kuroo made a show of considering Bokuto’s suggestion, but Bokuto knew from the glint in Kuroo’s eyes that the bet was most definitely still on. “30 seconds to hide sound good?”

“Su-“

“Onetwothree not it!” Kuroo quickly interrupted, dashing in search of a hiding spot before Bokuto had a moment to even complete his thoughts.

A second’s shock and Bokuto yelled towards Kuroo’s retreating figure and started the 30 second countdown to minimize the extra seconds for Kuroo.

Making the best use of the half a minute he had, Kuroo spent half of it running down the street, turning a corner. Upon spotting a tree with conveniently sturdy branches within his reach, Kuroo spent his remaining seconds climbing up his new perch. Reasoning that the elevated view would allow Kuroo to a fair view, able to see anyone approaching and if not, the tree would make a comfortable enough seat to sit back and play with his phone for a bit. If Bokuto went the wrong way searching for him, well, then it was an assured victory for Kuroo, wasn’t it?

So what could possibly go wrong? Kuuro thinks to himself as he pulls himself onto the nearest branch. A soft thud later and he notices his pockets empty and phone on the soft grass below. “Urgh…”

Acutely aware of his limited time, Kuroo considered the following possibilities:

Possibility 1: Bokuto wandered in the wrong direction, so Kuroo had a few precious minutes to hop down, grab his phone, and climb back up the tree or even run off to a new hiding spot.

Possibility 2: Bokuto wandered in the right direction and it was only a matter of time before Bokuto would find him stranded in a tree. If Kuroo were honest with himself, the tree’s foliage did absolutely nothing to actually hide him.

Or possibility 3 in which Bokuto just rounded the corner and approaching the tree, hears Kuroo’s phone as it made a little notification alert. Looking up and making eye contact with an animated yell, “Found you!” Bokuto ended the first round on hide-and-seek with a triumphant 4 minutes and 33 seconds as evidenced by the timer app opened on his phone.

With much grumbling, Kuroo hopped down from the tree and swiped his phone from the ground before Bokuto realized his chance for further shenanigans. “That wasn’t fairrr,” he complains, “give me a redo.”

“Hah! You already had a head start, it’s my turn now. Besides the tree didn’t hide you at all,” Bokuto grins. But let’s be real, Bokuto would have loved to hide in a tree if Kuroo hadn’t done just that. High up there perched like a bird? It was definitely an ideal. But a kid’s got to be original and Bokuto started brainstorming for other possible hiding spots.

“C’mon bro, you gotta admit, it was a great hiding place,” Kuroo replies, realizing that Bokuto was already thinking about hiding places of his own. Well just because Kuroo got a few extra seconds didn’t mean he’d willingly hand them over to Bokuto, so he started the countdown loudly, “1, 2, 3…”

“AaaughH wait! Wait I’m not ready yet! I just- ugh” Bokuto complains before taking off with a run. He was still jealous of Kuroo’s tree and looked around for places he would actually be concealed. Uhh behind that house over there…? By the fence? Oh! He could sneak behind some of those bushes and Kuroo definitely wouldn’t see him. And so Bokuto crawled behind some very dense bushes, backed up against the wall of a house. But it’s cramped and scratchy and not at all comfortable, but Bokuto chose to remain for the time being, not knowing if Kuroo had already finished counting or not.

Bokuto reasons that although he wanted to act on impulse and find another fun hiding spot, he’d probably give himself away in the process and trip on his way up or something. So he waited. And waited. And got impatient and started crawling anyway. Bokuto looked around to survey his surrounding; not much could be seen through the dense bushes, but If he craned his head a bit…oops!

Accidently bumping his head on a windowsill, Bokuto was struck with a brilliant idea! And carefully crawls up and through the windowsill, sure that he’d be safe from Kuroo’s watchful eyes inside the house. With a soft thump, Bokuto breathed a sigh of relief as he safely landed inside the house. Looking around, he made eye contact with a boy about his age and opened his mouth with an eager hello on the tip of his tongue before remembering the game of hide-and-seek. Bokuto quickly closed his mouth and struggled to figure out how to converse with this person without giving himself away.

Bokuto decided that whispering would be subtle enough and with a grin, puts a finger over his mouth in a “shhhhh”ing gesture in hopes that the boy would catch on. The boy stood there for a bit, looking relatively uninterested and a bit cautious of the intruder that was Bokuto . “I’m playing hide-and-seek!” Bokuto whispered excitedly, pausing shortly to listen for approaching footsteps, “No one’ll never find me here!”

“Considering this is a stranger’s house, you aren’t supposed to be here,” the boy commented dryly.

Ah, Bokuto thought, immediately realizing the excessiveness of his actions. He had a tendency to get carried away in the heat of the moment. “Aeeeehhhhhh, that’s true…you don’t mind, do you?” he asks hopefully, “Kuroo and I made a bet.” Maybe, Bokuto thought, just maybe this person would be really nice! And help him out a bit.

Bokuto was aware of the boy’s scrutiny, but he supposed that was to be expected, considering he was the stranger of the house. The boy let out a soft, barely perceivable sigh, “Fine . You can sit on the couch by the little table instead of crouching by the window. Your exit is down the hall way to your left when your game is over.”

“Ah! Thank you!” Bokuto responds cheerfully, “The name’s Bokuto Koutaro, by the way, nice to meet you!”

Bokuto didn’t know if he was better at going unnoticed than Kuroo, but not only would he definitely win their game of hide-an-seek, he had a feeling he just made a new friend in the process.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize if anyone seems OOC or the conversations don't flow/seem natural.  
> I'm working on it I promise. uwu

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so needy for friendship fics though slay me where I stand


End file.
